DLTK's Crafts for KidsTurkey Paper
Plate Craft

Contributed by Leanne Guenther

I sometimes receive emails from people indicating that some of
the crafts on the site seem too young for ages 7 and up, but my
troop of 7, 8 and 9 year old Brownies really enjoyed a project just
like this (in their case it was a
peacock).

I think tying 'younger' crafts in with learning while crafting is
a good way to make projects suitable for older children. The
older children are able to work independently and divide their attention
between listening and crafting which leaves the adults free to read
a book, share a slide show or have a Q&A time about the topic being
shared.

Materials:

paper plate,

markers or pencil crayons (browns, reds, oranges)

brown and red paint (we used tempra paint)

template pieces I've provided (printer, paper and something to color
with) or make your own by tracing the shapes onto construction paper.

scissors,

glue,

stapler (optional, but it holds the body onto the plate quickly).

Directions

On a paper plate, draw lines with brown, red and orange shades of
markers or pencil crayons, the lines should all cross in the center
of the plate.

Have the children dip their index finger into brown paint and make
fingerprints here and there on the plate.

Optional: let dry at this point -- we never do, but you could.

Now have the children dip their pinkie finger into red paint and
make a pinkie fingerprint in the center of each index fingerprint they
made in the previous step.

Set the plates aside to dry.

WHILE THAT'S DRYING,
make the body:.

Print out the template of choice and color if using the B&W option.

I made the body brown, eyes black, gobbler red and beak orange
on the color version. This fairly closely matches real turkey
colors, but you can let the kids get creative when they color in
the B&W version

OR.

Make your own template pieces by tracing the pieces from the
B&W template onto a piece of cardboard or the lid of a plastic ice
cream container. Cut these out before craft time. Now
let the children trace the pieces onto construction paper.

Cut out the template pieces.

Assemble the body:

the body is the largest piece -- it looks a bit like a peanut...
the head is the narrow part

Glue the eyes, gobbler and beak onto the head (you could substitute
wiggly eyes for the template ones or just use a black marker to
draw on eyes)

Glue the feet onto the bottom of the boddy.

Glue or staple the body to the plate and you're done your turkey!

Craft Templates:

Close template window when done printing to return to this screen.

Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).